Saturday, October 19, 2013

Doll face

So, here's what happened. The flea market where I'm set up is basically semi-enclosed. To be blunt, it's more like car ports with partial walls, and even though it's safe enough to store things there, when a storm blows through, there's water damage. Well, storms came through last week. And some stuff, inevitably, got damaged and got thrown out. And there was this ruined little clown doll... and I found it strangely fascinating. So, I took an extreme close-up of it's face with my cell phone, and the results were even more fascinating... and very very disturbing.

And, I had to test the results. Of course, there's plenty of dolls and figurines and toys around, in various conditions and states of repair. So I took some more extreme close-ups. The results are interesting to say the least. When you take an extreme closeup of a doll face, you notice things that aren't evident. You see the blank stare. The sometimes wicked twist of the lips. Things that you'd never observe otherwise. Soon other dealers heard what I was doing... and they brought dolls to see how the pic would turn out. We were all having a blast. Here's some of the most interesting pics...

This small poirot doll has a melancholy expression that is only intensified by the dust across her face... before she was cleaned up, we took this pic.

This is a strange doll that needs batteries. With batteries, her eyes open and her mouth moves, and she carries on conversations. Without batteries, her latex skin gives her closed eyes a spooky quality. It must be noted that the dealer who has this doll will probably be discarding it soon, as almost every child confronted with it is terrified. In real life, she looks a bit like a heroin addict. In this pic, most of the dealers agree she looks a bit cadaverous.

Another clown doll. At least this one isn't creepy.

This is only erie in that it's far too perfect. Pretty. In a Stepford Wives sort of way. It's one of those lady head flowerpots, made in the late 50's.

Another Poirot. This is actually my favorite of the pics, because of the colors probably, those grays and blues work for me.

This is one of those resin statuettes. The slapdash paint jobs on these give the pics and almost impressionistic quality. The statuette was one of those Native American things, Indian Chief with full feather headdress.

This is a plastic toy. Green, one eyed grinning monster. He was in a movie a few years ago, but I have no idea which one.

Resin sea captain.

reproduction Egyptian Cat.

Resin Santa Clause.

Porcelean Baby figurine.

And that's some of the pics. Very few of them came out as interesting as the original ruined clown, but they were a lot of fun as a group effort at the flea. Hope y'all are having a good weekend!